In anticipation of a NATO summit in the Welsh city of Newport, activists have began to arrive, setting up a protest camp.
It is expected that tens of thousands of people will join the camp in the days leading up to the summit, starting on Thursday.
Newport is starting to resemble a fortress as the preparations are made with 3 meter high fences, barricades and roads blocked.
Nine and half thousand police officers will also be in the city to protect the summit.
According to a statement posted by the Stop the War Coalition website, the United States will at the two-day summit pressure Western powers “to increase their already huge military budgets at a time when poverty and inequality are soaring.”
“None of the cuts would be necessary if the sums Britain spends on its military and armaments were invested in social need instead of the war machine,” said the coalition in a statement.
Pippa Bartolotti, Wales Green Party leader and one of the No Nato Newport organizers, said: “The Nato that so many people remember as a force for defense has turned into a force for aggression without anyone really being aware that this subtle change has happened over the last 10 to 15 years.”
The two-day NATO summit will be Britain’s biggest ever gathering of international leaders as the Western military alliance will decide how to deal with crises in Ukraine and Iraq.
More than 150 heads of state and ministers will attend the summit.